Federal bodysnatchers and the New Guinea virus : people, parasites, politics / Robert S. Desowitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Desowitz, Robert S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communicable diseases--Popular works.

Communicable diseases.

Epidemiology.

Social medicine.

Social medicine--Popular works.

Epidemiology--Popular works.

Genre:

Popular works.

Physical Description:

x, 262 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2002]

Summary:

Twenty Years Ago The World Slept, confident that biomedical science would protect it from devastating plagues. Our wake-up call sounded at the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. Then came other unfamiliar pathogens in its wake, among them the West Nile virus. Meanwhile, the neglected diseases of the third world, including malaria and African sleeping sickness, festered -- their victims salvageable only by unaffordable, patent-protected drugs. Robert S. Desowitz traces the histories of these diseases and the issues we must confront -- the morality and legality of patent laws covering biomedical "inventions," the effect of global warming on epidemics, the commercial relationships of publicly supported biomedical scientists and industry, and the growing dissociation of clinicians and public health professionals. The resolution of these issues, now under the terrifying shadow of bioterrorism, is essential for the well-being -- possibly even for the ultimate survival -- of the entire human species.

Contents:

Introduction: Water under My Grandmother's Bridge 3

Chapter 1. West Nile-on-the-Danube: The Virus before 1999 9

Chapter 2. West Nile-on-the-Hudson: The Virus, 1999 and Beyond 27

Chapter 3. The DDT Jitters 57

Chapter 4. The Malaria $Millions 75

Chapter 5. Malaria: Millions for the Vaccine but Not One Cent for Defense 102

Chapter 6. The Curious Case of the Wake-Up-from-the-Dead Drug and the Bearded Lady 125

Chapter 7. Everybody's Making Money but Tchaikovsky 155

Chapter 8. The New Guinea Retrovirus and the Federal Bodysnatchers 177

Chapter 9. We're Having a Heat Wave, a Tropical Heat Wave 208

Chapter 10. Loose Stools and Troubled Waters: Cryptosporidiosis 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0393051854

OCLC:

49799447